End to the Putin Puzzle?

Ignore the Metternichs: What Putin fears is not the West but his own people.

By

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

July 22, 2014 7:18 p.m. ET

Perhaps what we've been actually watching since the start of 2014 has been the last chapter of Vladimir Putin's rule. All has inevitably gone pear-shaped for the Russian leader since the popular overthrow of his client and ally Viktor Yanukovych in the strategic next-door nation of Ukraine.

The Sochi Olympics extravaganza, meant to suggest to Russians they are a world-class country with a world-class president, now looks like $50 billion down the drain. The Russian economy, already weighed down by corruption and cronyism...